苹果发布最新防监控系统补丁

One of the world’s most evasive digital arms dealers is believed to have been taking advantage of three security vulnerabilities in popular Apple products in its efforts to spy on dissidents and journalists.

据信，一家属于全球渗透性最强之列的数字武器交易商，一直在利用热销的苹果(Apple)产品中的三个安全漏洞，来监视异见人士和新闻工作者。

Investigators discovered that a company called the NSO Group, an Israeli outfit that sells software that invisibly tracks a target’s mobile phone, was responsible for the intrusions. The NSO Group’s software can read text messages and emails and track calls and contacts. It can even record sounds, collect passwords and trace the whereabouts of the phone user.

In response, Apple on Thursday released a patched version of its mobile software, iOS 9.3.5. Users can get the patch through a normal software update.

作为回应，苹果周四发布了经过修复的移动软件版本iOS 9.3.5。用户可通过正常的软件升级获取补丁。

Apple fixed the holes 10 days after a tip from two researchers, Bill Marczak and John Scott Railton, at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, and Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security company.

“We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits,” said Fred Sainz, a company spokesman.

“我们建议全体顾客坚持下载最新版本的iOS，以保护自己远离潜在的安全漏洞，”苹果公司的发言人弗雷德·赛恩斯(Fred Sainz)说。

In interviews and manuals, the NSO Group’s executives have long boasted that their spyware worked like a “ghost,” tracking the moves and keystrokes of its targets, without leaving a trace. But until this month, it was not clear how exactly the group was monitoring its targets, or who exactly it was monitoring.

A clearer picture began to emerge on Aug. 10, when Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates, who has been tracked by surveillance software several times, began receiving suspicious text messages. The messages purported to contain information about the torture of U.A.E. citizens.

Mr. Mansoor passed the messages to researchers at the Citizen Lab, who confirmed they were an attempt to track him through his iPhone.

曼苏尔把短信转给了“公民实验室”的研究人员。后者证实，有人企图通过他的手机跟踪他。

This latest effort was far more sophisticated than what was found aimed at his devices before. The researchers found it was connecting to 200 servers, several of them registered to the NSO Group. Strewn throughout the spyware code were references to Pegasus, the name of an NSO Group spyware product.

Citizen Lab brought in Lookout to help examine the code. Together, they discovered that the spyware relied on three previously unknown iOS vulnerabilities — called “zero days” because Apple didn’t know about them and had zero days to patch them.

In many cases, the NSO Group had designed its tools to impersonate those of the Red Cross, Facebook, Federal Express, CNN, Al Jazeera, Google and even the Pokemon Company to gain the trust of its targets, according to the researchers.

Earlier this year, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that his agency had paid hackers who found a way for the F.B.I. to crack into an iPhone used by one of the shooters in last year’s mass killings in San Bernardino, Calif. Neither the hackers nor the F.B.I. have told Apple how this was accomplished.

Apple’s software update patches the NSO Group’s exploits, but it is unclear whether the company has patched the vulnerabilities used by the F.B.I. to crack into its iPhone. Apple recently began a “bug bounty” program to pay hackers who report vulnerabilities in its systems.

Among the other NSO targets, besides Mr. Mansoor, were Rafael Cabrera, a Mexican journalist, who broke a story on conflicts of interest among Mexico’s ruling family. In several cases, NSO Group’s tools had been crafted to target users in Yemen, Turkey, Mozambique, Mexico, Kenya and the U.A.E.

Mr. Dahbash added that NSO Group does not operate any of its systems and requires that its customers use its products in a “lawful manner.” “Specifically,” he said, “the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes.”

达巴什接着表示，NSO集团不操作自己的任何系统，并且要求客户“合法”使用其产品。“具体来说，”他说。“相关产品仅用于预防和调查犯罪。”

He would not say if the software is used by government agencies in the U.A.E. or Mexico.

他没有透露阿拉伯联合酋长国或墨西哥的政府机构是否使用了相关软件。

In 2014, NSO Group sold a majority stake to San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners Management LLC for $120 million. Francisco Partners declined to comment.

Mr. Mansoor said in an interview that the discoveries were a sad reminder that no matter what he does to protect his devices and digital security, he will continue to be a target for companies that provide this sort of spying technology.